THE SIMPLICITY OF ELECTRIC PROPULSION: LEMCO MOTOR

I was attracted to the idea of electric propulsion because it seemed like a cleaner and simpler system to propel the boat than the hot stinky diesel engine. It is all this and more. Even I was surprised how easy it is to maintain and upgrade which I will do in the next few weeks when I install a new controller box. Which only has a few components in it and is very simple to trouble shoot.  I know this because I have opened it up and looked inside. What I did not know was how simple that even the LEMCO motor that the controller connects to was also very simple and repairable. That is until I came across this video of a fellow who has converted a Cabin Cruiser to electric propulsion. He has had the experience of taking apart and repairing the motor and produced a video of it that I found very interesting:

BUH BYE JETSKIS ?

Interesting new watercraft that might replace noisy gas guzzling Jet Ski's and possibly one's dingy with electric propulsion powered Quadrofoil.

"the average jet ski is powered by a 125 hp motor, and one Kawaski model uses a mind-melting 300 hp, the Quadrofoil is powered by 5 hp (3.5kW), 25 times smaller than the average jet ski. Yet on that mere 5 hp, it can hit speeds up to 40 km/h and, says Pivec, accelerate like a Ferrari. Better yet, once it reaches between 10-12 km/h (6-7.4 mph) and the 'wings' lift it out of the water, its speed suddenly increases, while its power consumption drops by half. Best of all, it dumps no dirty hydrocarbons into the water. And if skimming over the water at 25 mph - and in the process slicing through those wakes and waves - isn't exciting enough for you, Pivec says they are working on faster craft and bigger models: a four-place is on the drawing board. They also have a patent that overcomes one of the drawbacks of conventional hydrofoils: their inability to turn in tight circles. The Quadrofoil has a 7 meter (23 ft) turning radius, made possible by their steerable 'wings' and motor." - EVWORLD



Adoption of electric propulsion should make anchorages a little quieter too! Stay tuned.

Hat Tip: John Rushworth

OH WELL!: Not all ideas work out.

Having Electric Propulsion can be boring. Once installed there is not a lot of maintenance or repair. But, it is easy to modify. So one day I thought about how when using the propulsion system  in hybrid mode on a windless day I am only using 900 watts of power from the Honda 2000i generator. That is because this is the max that the ZIVAN NG-1 charger can provide to the 48 volt battery bank. So I thought if I bought an additional 600 watt power supply and connected it in parallel with the Zivan I might be able to get another 12 amps when electro sailing. So yesterday I installed the wiring to make this happen and did some tests to see if my idea would work. Let's just say it did not. The Zivan performed as usual but, the new 600 watt power supply did not add any amps for charging like I thought. Oh well. I have not totally given up on the concept. I'll try another test and see if I can make it happen but, the first attempt was not encouraging. But, at least nothing smoked either. I'll post about the next attempt in the future.

ELECTRIC BOATS ARE FUN

BIANKA is a cruising boat. I never race. But, this electric boat looks like a bit of fun:



Hat tip John Rushworth

CHOICES: Batteries

I was looking around for some specs for battery terminal torque specs and came upon this chart at the MK Battery site:

I'm about to start my seventh season with the four 8A4D AGM batteries that make up my 48 volt electric propulsion bank. Somehow I instinctively used them in a way that should provide over a thousand life cycle charges.  I typically revert to Hybrid mode using the Honda 2000i generator once the battery bank has dropped to 70 to 80% from 100% full charge.  Turns out that looks like a good point to have a good charge life cycle for the bank.  So far so god. I still think I made the right decision in going with AGM batteries over the Lithium Ion batteries that were still fairly new back in 2008 when I did the conversion. The cost and availability were factors I considered. Today I think I would still go with the AGM's as they seem to be holding up well. I'll do some more in depth battery testing in a few weeks to see how well.    The following video is and example of my modus operandi using electric propulsion and when I operate in hybrid mode on an unusually windless day heading down the Hudson River:

NOTES OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: Harbor Test 2013 Part One

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Back in early June I had just splashed BIANKA but, had to wait for the boatyard to step the mast. Since I had nothing else pressing on board I thought I would take the opportunity to do some testing of the electric propulsion system both without and with the mast installed. So that's what I did. I made several runs between two buoys in the harbor that were 450 yards apart. I did a similar test back in the fall of 2011. Though I conducted these tests with a cleaner bottom since the boat had recently been splashed.

The mast on my 30 foot Nonsuch weighs about 300 lbs which is pretty heavy compared to a lot of other boats the same size. So I was curious to see what effect the mast weight might have on the boats performance. Like the test I did in 2011 I made two passes between the buoys. One going east and then turning around and making another pass going west. They were made at various current draws from the 48 volt battery bank of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 amps. The two passes were averaged to take into account any tidal current pluses and minus to the speed.
Here is the graph comparing the speed both with and without the mast on board:

As you can see there is a slight difference at the low end and upper end of the speed data. But, only about a  quarter of a knot or so. The sweet spot seems to be right around 3 to 4 knot range where both graphs are pretty close. Out of curosity I took the data from the Harbor Test of fall 2011 and added it to the above graph's data:

What's interesting to note is that the 2011 test data was taken at the end of the season just before I pulled the boat for the winter. The hull and prop had not been cleaned for probably a month or more:

So that growth seemed to have had some effect on that test data. 

ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK: Part Two: Riding the East River Flood

 The current that took BIANKA and I down the Hudson River got the boat to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan Island at just about the time the of the flood current up the East River. Even though I had to use the motor exclusively for the past six hours,  the quiet operation of electric propulsion made it a very pleasant journey.  This video covers the East River  part of the trip from  the Battery to just before Hell Gate.

ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK PART ONE CLICK HERE

ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK PART THREE CLICK HERE

NOTES OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: Tests from the harbor 2011

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When I started this blog back in 2006 I thought it might just be a little online scrap book of travels with some photos. An easy place to put those memories and share it with anyone who happened by. It has since morphed into something a little bigger. In between my thoughts, photos, cruises and travels I also post things about products here and there. Those that work and those that don't work for me. I also use the blog as the name implies as somewhat of a log book of maintenance and boat projects on board BIANKA. This is one of those posts.

I had wanted to do some propulsion tests of BIANKA's electric propulsion system as soon as I splashed her for the 2011 season. But, that did not happen. But one morning a few weeks later I was having my usual 6 AM coffee in the cockpit. The air was still in the harbor, the water like glass and it was quiet and empty of any boat traffic. I thought well why not do some testing. Even though it would was not perfect conditions. It was midway to low tide so there would be some currents running and they do run oddly in this harbor. Probably would have been better to do it at the peak of the high or at low tide when currents would have been minimal. The boat had also been on the mooring for two weeks so I did not know how clean the bottom and prop were which could affect things somewhat. Anyway, I turned on the system slipped the mooring and headed out to the channel.  I made several passes between channel markers that were about 450 yards apart. One pass was made in each direction drawing 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 amps from the battery bank.  I then averaged the speed of each pass and calculated the watts used. Here are the results:

PASS #      AMPS   KNOTS   WATTS

1                  10            1.9           495

2                  20           2.8            984

3                  30           3.3          1458

4                  40           3.7          1933

5                  50           4.1          2417

Again these are the average of the two passes. One against and one with the current. I also did one additional test where I just throttled up to 5 knots and the power used there was 4346 watts. The test data pretty much confirms what I have noticed on board. Especially on pass number two. I can move my 8 ton 30 foot sailboat at about three knots just using power from my Honda 2000 eu generator and the Zivan NG-1 battery charger which is rated at 900 watts. The numbers show I could add an additional 48 volt 500 watt power supply into the mix.  I should then obtain the results of pass number three and still be within the power limits of the Honda 2000 generator. Which is good to know if I ever feel the need to add one. But, since BIANKA is a primarily a sailboat I have never felt the need for it.  I'm also using the same three bladed prop that BIANKA used with the diesel. It has a few dings here and there. I might be able to improve things a bit with a prop optimized for my electric propulsion system. But, I tend to be if it ain't broke don't fix it type of sailor. Anyway I'll try and do another test at the beginning of next season and see how they compare. Also it is good to have this data to compare if I do decide at some point to change the prop at some point. But, I'm very happy with things the way they are and have been for the past four years. So I really don't expect to be making any changes soon.

BLOG UPDATE:  After doing this test I pulled the boat for the season. I found the prop was not as pristine as it could have been as this photo shows just after the boat was pulled:

Usually I would have dived and cleaned it but, it being late in the season the water was too cold. I expect to have even better results in the spring doing the tests with a much cleaner prop.
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A FINE DAY FOR AN ELECTRO SAIL

Recently I decided to head off on a little cruise even though Mr. NOAA was only calling for very light winds of under 5 knots for the day. Surely,  I thought with the land temperature in the nineties the usual afternoon sea breeze would kick in. It didn't.
I dropped off the mooring early in the morning and began motoring out of the harbor at about 1.5 knots using around 7 amps from the battery. I use this speed as I work around the boat raising sail etc... before heading out of the harbor. I raised sail and decided to keep the throttle at that position to cancel any prop drag in the light winds expected. As I headed out of the harbor and picked up a favoring current I was soon moving along at about three to four knots. Not bad. I motor sailed or as some with boats using Electric Propulsion systems like to say "electro sailed" for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours in this manner. Interesting thing about electro sailing is that even though I started out in the harbor using about 7 amps as the light breeze filled the sail intermittently the current consumption drop quite a bit as the breeze picked up. When the battery capacity had dropped to 90% I start thinking about firing up the Honda 2000 generator and using the 16 amps from the ZIVAN NG-1 charger to motor along at about 3 knots with very little help from the wind.   I adjust the throttle so there is zero current being drawn from the battery. Since the wind looked like it was not going to be much help at all I moved the generator forward away from the cockpit with the exhaust facing out off the lee side. The Honda 2000 is quieter than my four stroke dingy outboard but, it is not completely silent either but, at 47 pounds is light enough to moved easily. I continued this operation for most of the day for a total of about 37 nautical miles. Finally late in the afternoon about two nautical miles from my destination an afternoon sea breeze finally kicked in and I enjoyed at least some nice sailing up until I was able to drop my anchor. Checking on the battery after the trip I still had 90% capacity left in the bank. All in all it was a fine day for an electro sail.

END OF THE SEASON THOUGHTS OF AN ELECTRIC SAILOR: 2010

The third season since I pulled out the old diesel engine and replaced it with an electric motor has ended. I've been reflecting on this. I think this was the season I became completely comfortable with the decision to go electric.

My first season with electric propulsion back in 2008 was full of fussing and watching every aspect of the propulsion system to make sure there it was always charged and ready and operating properly.  I would run the Honda 2000i generator more than necessary just to make sure the power would be available even when I was not really using any electric propulsion at all. For example when I was making my first 12 mile transit down the East River via Hell Gate  since converting to electric propulsion. I kept the Honda generator running on deck because I did not know how much I would be using the electric propulsion. In previous trips with my diesel I ALWAYS had to have it running for the entire trip. Just to make sure power was available and their were no starting problems.  I found out that with electric propulsion there really is no need to have the generator fired up at all. I let natures currents carry the boat along and just need a little thrust from time to time to straighten out the boat. It has become a quiet and pleasurable journey.

My second season was marred by the failure of the Xantrex XBM battery monitor display.

 Which meant I was flying blind in terms of being able to see how much current and amp hours I was drawing from the battery bank when under electric propulsion. It is akin to running a diesel engine with  with a broken fuel gauge. You just never know when you would run out for sure. So again I was very cautious when using electric propulsion.

This third season was very different. The XBM battery monitor display was repaired and working plus I installed a backup meter inside the cabin. This season I rarely fired up the generator while underway. Instead waiting until I anchored to charge up the bank after the days travel. I also did not hesitate to add a little electric propulsion and motor/sail quietly along when the current conspired to do it's best to make sure I would not be able to round a point of land or buoy.  I only used about seven gallons of gasoline the whole season. Since I traveled about 350 miles I made about 50 miles to the gallon. Though the actual amount is probably greater because at least a gallon of that consumption was for the noisy Honda BP-2 four stroke outboard I used on occasion to power the dingy.  I was amazed at how much gas the little 2 horsepower outboard consumed when compared the Honda 2000 generator. Another revelation I had this season is when this outboard finally dies I'll probably replace it with an electric outboard too!  Of course BIANKA is first and foremost a sailboat and there was help from the wind turbine and solar panels on board when charging the battery bank too.  All of which also helped to decrease the amount of time I need to run the generator. I even found uses for the excess energy from the 48 volt solar and wind turbine after the 48 volt battery bank was fully charged. I am looking forward to next season even more now that I am completely comfortable with how reliable, quiet and useful my electric propulsion system is. In short I am so glad I made the decision to go electric with every year that goes by. 

Going Electric Part 7: Hosed again!

Now that most of the engine parts have been removed and the area has been cleared of all unnecessary vestiges of the internal combustion engine. It's time to focus on the area where the electric motor will be installed.
As you can see there is not a lot of room for it's installation. It would be much easier to install the Thoosa 9000 or any electric propulsion system for that matter if I had a straight line engine and transmission setup. But, unfortunately BIANKA had a Hurth V drive transmission and this is the area where the transmission connected up to the prop shaft as shown below: This arrangement I assume helps to save space with the engine installation as the engine sits over the prop shaft and the V Drive transmission allows for connection to the prop shaft. Even though there is not a lot of room one of the real nice things about the Thoosa 9000 motor is that is small. How small is it?

Small enough to be carried on board in a boat bag! Try that with a replacement diesel. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I still need to clean and clear out this area before one can start to install the motor. The photo below shows that yes there is indeed MORE HOSES to move along with a bunch of wiring. But, these items are only going to be removed temporarily. They will be reinstalled once the motor has been installed. Below is a photo that identifies some of the items to be moved:
Also hidden under the bilge hoses on the right is an AC wire and the propane line. NOTE: Make sure the propane tank is disconnected before you disconnect the propane lines. Also make sure all of the equipment is turned off before you disconnect the wiring to get it out of the way. Also note the you may have to reconnect the ground wires of the boat to a new terminal connection point . On BIANKA these wires were formally connected up to a single point on the now removed engine. As shown below:

You need to take a little time to think about how you are going to remove the wires and hoses. Because you may find that some are best to be disconnected and moved temporarily forward and other items are better to be pulled aft. Some of the wires may run through supports and are were run before connectors were put on the ends so removing them entirely may be more difficult than others.


Shown above are the wires for the bilge pump and the cables for the depth sounder, wind indicator and speedometer along with assorted ground wires.
I found that all the hoses that ran into the bilge it was easier to pull them back aft. While the wiring was pulled forward. Also these hoses have been sitting there for over twenty years and have gotten a little grimy making it a good time to clean things up. NOTE: Keep the bilge vent hose handy after you pull it back. It will be very helpful in venting the work area during installation as things will be getting dusty and it will also help in removing fumes once the fiberglass work begins.

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GOING ELECTRIC: PART 9 WHERE TO BEGIN?

Alrighty then! I've removed and cleaned out the area where I will need to install the Thoosa 9000 Lynch electric motor. The question for me is how? As you can see in the photo below there is not a lot of room here:
I sketched up some ideas on a napkin. I showed some of my ideas to some coworkers who are more mechanically inclined than I am. They were greeted with mixed results. So I decided I probably needed some professional help. While I have done some simple fiberglass repairs over the years. I was not about to learn fiber glassing and stringer fabrication 101 on my boat by myself. So I turned to a local fellow named Malcom who I had first contacted when I was considering replacing the Westerbeke diesel with a new Beta Marine engine as he was the local representative for Beta. But, he also refurbishes yachts of all sizes and does repairs. To me he was exactly the guy I wanted to help me with this part of the electrification project. So here is what he came up with:

The first step was to extend the existing stringers all the way to the edge of the cabin as shown above. The existing stringer edge was routered out and the new stringer additions were glued and screwed to them.

Here's a shot from above showing both extension stringers installed. The next step was to rough up the area around the stringers to remove the paint and provide a surface that the epoxy would better adhere to when fiber glassing begins:

The above photo shows another angle. Notice the bilge blower hose in middle of the picture. Here is a tip: As I mentioned in a previous post using the bilge blower came in handy to help remove the dust and particles created by grinding down the surface around the stringers. It will also help with the removing the fumes involved with the next step: Fiber glassing.


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GOING ELECTRIC PART 17: INSTALLING THE BATTERIES

Another 1/4 ton pallet of batteries arrived at the house. The correct 8A4D size this time and the wrong larger 8A8D batteries have been picked up and returned to the manufacturer for a credit. Now it's time to move on to another milestone in the electrification of BIANKA. Installing the batteries. The batteries on an electrically propelled boat are the fuel tank that hold the fuel (electric potential) that powers the motor. It's pretty important function. So it makes sense that this part of the system and it's installation be thought out pretty carefully. I've already decided on the battery layout as shown in GOING ELECTRIC PART 15. Now it's time to install the real ones.

I tried to think about not just installing the batteries now but, also future installations and maintenance of the system. Such as being on a cruise and needing to replace the batteries. I am hoping to get at least five to ten years out of the batteries. Their life is yet to be determined. I am hoping new battery technologies will also be tested and proven in the future. Which is also something that an electrically propelled boat can take advantage of. But that is the future. The problem now is how I can install and maneuver the four 130 pound batteries into the hold. It's a lot of weight to be lifting and dropping into the hold and each can cause a lot of damaged to a person or boat if it drops. I then discovered this handy little piece of technology The Forespar Nova Lift:



This solved my battery installation problem. It has a capacity of 220 lbs plenty of safety margin for loading the 130 pound batteries. It could also be used to lift other items like an outboard motor or even a person who needs to be rescued from the water. I was so excited about installing the batteries I forgot to take photo of the actual above deck process using the Nova Lift. But, these photo "simulations" will give you a good idea of what the process looked like using the Nova Lift:




I laid a small 12 inch wide plank below the hatch so I could slide the battery onto the battery platform. This was very helpful.
I also came across something at a surplus electronics website that proved to be useful:
A pair of industrial rollers. They were just the thing to help maneuver the hefty AGM butteries once they were in the confined space below deck. Below is a photo of the first battery installed and the second one is on the plank on the way in.

Notice the small crowbar this was helpful in lifting and positioning the batteries into the correct location. The white grate items on the battery platform are a product called DRI DEK. It is made for decks and floors but, I am using pieces of it here for underneath the batteries. It serves three purposes: 1) It raises the batteries over the heads of the lag bolts securing the battery platform. 2) It provides an airspace helping to keep the batteries cooler and dry. 3) It helps keep the batteries from sliding on the platform. Also note the battery tie down straps for the same purpose.
With the battery installation completed the heavy work is done and I'm moving rapidly toward completion of the electrification of the BIANKA.

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